Relative $\mathbb{A}^1$-Contractibility of Smooth Schemes and Exotic Motivic Spheres

One of the emerging problems in algebraic geometry is to characterize the affine $n$-space $\mathbb{A}^n$ among smooth affine schemes up to $\mathbb{A}^1$-contractibility. Recent efforts show that this characterization holds in dimensions $n<3$ over certain fields. In this thesis, we extend this observation to "reasonably" arbitrary base schemes in relative dimensions $d<3$, exploiting the Zariski local triviality and the triviality of the sheaf of relative differentials. From dimensions $n\geq 3$, the existence of smooth "exotic" affine schemes - those that are $\mathbb{A}^1$-contractible but not isomorphic to the affine $n$-space - has already been established. A well-studied family constitutes the Koras-Russell threefolds $\mathcal{K}$ and their higher-dimensional prototypes $\mathcal{X}_n$, whose $\mathbb{A}^1$-contractibility has been so far proven over fields of characteristic zero. Here, we extend the relative $\mathbb{A}^1$-contractibility of $\mathcal{K}$ and $\mathcal{X}_n$ over a Noetherian base scheme in arbitrary dimensions. Then, using these prototypes, we study the existence of "exotic spheres" - $n$-dimensional smooth schemes that are $\mathbb{A}^1$-homotopic, but not isomorphic to $\mathbb{A}^n \backslash \{0\}$ - in motivic homotopy theory. This result can be seen as the "compact" analog of the study of exotic affine schemes. Our main result shows that in all dimensions $n\geq 4$, the quasi-affine varieties $\mathcal{X}_n \backslash \{\bullet\}$ give a model for the exotic motivic spheres over infinite perfect fields. The novelty is that these constitute the first family of examples of smooth motivic spheres of dimension $n$, which are not isomorphic to $\mathbb{A}^n \backslash \{0\}$.